Card-making

“Glitter is in the Air” for this fabulous Californian Sweet Sixteen 🙂 I’m so excited to be doing these invitations for Chloe’s sweet sixteen party. She loves gold and glitter – and with the theme of “Glitter in the Air” for her party, what better way to make a statement to her guests than by having these fab gold invitation boxes decorated with glitzy designs? This was a great opportunity to put the Cameo machine to the test by using double sided adhesive sheets to cut out custom-designed flourishes as well as her initial “C” – and then embellished the adhesive cut outs in gold glitter and sealed them with a lacquer. I added touches of gold luxe metallic ribbons and a few little Swarovski crystals. Below are two different designs that I did as samples for her party invitations.

Chloe’s unique style allows the most glamorous boxed invitations I have done so far! I can’t wait to do the rest of her party event stationery and get these shipped out to her guests 🙂

You may recall the Twas the Night Before Christmas Pop Up Book from last year that I made just for fun – to put my pop up skills to the test! I ended up giving it to my boss’s boss so her children could enjoy it. Maybe I’ll have to make one for my new niece and nephew this year 🙂

Well, thanks to my husband and the purchase of this fabulous product: The Silhouette Cameo, I have made the new and improved Christmas Pop Up Book version! My hands are happy that I’m finally putting the x-acto knife aside because the Cameo is my new best friend for paper-crafting

PROS:

You can custom cut and print any design – I mean ANY design that you want

You never have to buy a die cut cartridge or mess around with expansion packs

You can download designs from their online store and automatically start printing right from your computer

Online designs are endless and they are really cheap $0.50-0.90 per design.

Their customer support staff are super friendly and they respond really quickly through email

And again…you can CUSTOM create your own design and print out any font, style, shape, or image and it will cut it out perfectly and intricately.

CONS:

It’s a little tricky to set up…there are white rollers on the sides that you have to slide to adjust the settings for smaller paper designs. These things are so difficult to budge the first time you try it! It finally worked for me when I discovered from another blog that wearing rubber gloves will help you grip them enough to twist the pinchers out of the notches.

* A NOTE to FELLOW ETSY SELLERS:Make sure that if you use the Cameo, you purchase the license for commercial use and avoid the designs that say “for personal use only” if you intend to use a copy-righted design in a product. You can, of course, create your own designs in the Silhouette Studio software that comes with it so that your original work can be used in your own products, but just make sure you don’t incorporate a personal-use-only design in a commercial product!

I actually purchased the Fiskars Fuse (die cut & letterpress combo set) on Black Friday. It was marked down to $179.99 from $299.99, so it was worth the price to try it out. But before I even took it out of its packaging, I came across a Cameo demo video on YouTube and instantly became awestruck. I have since returned the Fiskars Fuse – as it doesn’t even compare to this machine. Most craft stores have this machine on sale right now $100 off – so don’t purchase it directly through Silhouette.com if you can help it.

EDIT: Since posting this, Jewelry-DIY contacted me saying that they will provide a full refund in exchange for me taking down this blog post. I am still waiting for the PayPal refund.

Dear fellow crafters,

In the midst of putting together all the cute little wedding details I have been scammed by this website and I wanted you all to be warned to avoid getting yourself in a similar situation.

Here’s what happened:

As you know, I’ve put together my own boxed wedding invitations which feature a pretty heart shape rhinestone detail in the center of a black satin bow across the front of each invite (as shown below):

I ended up running out of these little rhinestone hearts and the prices at Joann’s craft store were outrageous. I couldn’t remember where I originally obtained the heart pins so I decided to hunt online. Naturally, as a cheap and frugal crafter, I look for the best deal that I possibly can. I started with a simple Google shopping search for “rhinestone heart stud earrings” because I figured that heart earrings would be the best way to secure the jewel to the ribbon (hot glue does not hold it!!!)

So, I came across this company, “Jewelry-diy.com” selling similar earrings for only $3.09 per pair. I thought this was perfect so I went ahead and ordered. It seemed legit, and I paid securely through my PayPal account thinking it was no big deal.

This is the photo of what I ordered from their website:

2 weeks later, after ordering 38 pairs of earrings (to have enough for each invitation), I received 1 pair of really crappy earrings that were NOT as pictured in the mail.

My first thought was,”oh well, shit happens.”

Not everything you order online ends up arriving as pictured – this is a known fact and a common risk that we all take whenever we order something online. I thought it was odd that only 1 pair arrived. I had to check my email receipt multiple times and made sure that I wasn’t going crazy – it did in fact say that I had ordered and paid for 38 pairs…so where were the rest? And aside from that…I wanted to return these right away.

So I went to the website and tried to initiate the process since there was no invoice or return information in the package I received and the label was all in Chinese. I tried finding a phone number on the website but no luck. They have a “Live Chat” option, but when you click on it, it’s just an email form to submit a message. So, I explained my story and submitted it.

Nothing.

Two weeks later, I submitted a follow up email.

Still nothing.

I hunted down the name of the company that accepted the PayPal payment from the jewelry-diy.com website called Huge Best Ltd with a phone number in China and a person named “Nancy” who is supposedly a customer service representative. You call this number and get no one. Then I tried emailing the Huge Best Ltd email address and haven’t had a response. After about 6 different emails, I am beyond frustrated. Plus, jewelry-diy.com keeps sending me all of these promotional emails about deals and discounts on their website. Seriously??

I still have not received an answer and I purchased these earrings on June 1, 2012. All I have is 1 pair of crappy cheap earrings that I paid $140.00 for. I highly WARN any of you who might stumble upon this website to BEWARE. DO NOT USE JEWELRY-DIY.COM!!

I ended up finding David Tutera Hair Snaps which came out to more money per snap but it was worth not having this frustration and in the end, they are lot prettier than the heart earrings that I originally used. I just had to use a hole puncher to get the snaps to stay on and measured where the hole should be on each ribbon so that they were centered each time.

I know it’s not quite spring yet. And if you live in New England, you would know that it has been pretty cold, damp, and icy lately from some beginning of March snow showers. But, I was in the mood for making a spring themed card and put together this little pop up flower. I like the pink, green, and purple combination. The cardstock stack is called “Latte” and comes with a great spring color palette. The 48 sheet pack is on sale this week at Joann’s for $9.99…which will help you crank out tons of lovely spring pop ups and other paper crafts. Hope you like this card, and have a great weekend!

When I first started using an x-acto knife, I hated it. But, after creating dozens of cards and little pop ups, I have realized that this crafting tool is invaluable. It allows for so many nice little intricate details that you just can’t achieve with using scissors. Maybe for some of you, using an x-acto knife for the first time is a piece of cake, but for me it took lots of practice to get really comfortable with it.

So, I saw a card in the store by Papyrus. You know, one of those super expensive ones that makes your jaw drop and makes you “ooh and ahh” over it for a few minutes. Yes? No? ….Maybe I’m the only weirdo who stalks out the card section of Target taking peeks at how some of the professionals, like Papyrus, put together a pop up card or make a lovely looking valentine.

Well, I saw a little scene cut out of a man and woman surrounded by a heart shape, with all little flowers surrounding it. I took a pic with the good old camera phone and used it as inspiration for my own little valentine scene that I used on the cover of this card.

The Papyrus card:

My Own, Not-as-Fancy or Cool-Looking Version:

So this definitely is not Papyrus-quality, whatsoever!!! But, while my x-acto knifing could be a little cleaner in some spots, I was happy that this came out decent enough to give to someone. I am hoping that my next x-acto knife project comes out a little crisper and that I’ll be able to handle a more complex one.

Ok and now for the POP-UP! I’m excited about this one.

Lift up the lid of the box and….surprise! There’s some candy!

Haha and yes, in case you were wondering, for the candy inside of the pop up box, I used real Hershey Kisses wrappers, rolled them into a little ball and glued them in the bottom of the box. What fun would all this Valentine-making be without some candy?

More to come soon, while I still have some red and pink cardstock, and while there are still a few days left until Valentine’s Day to make some more stuff!

I am so sorry for the delay in posting this tutorial! This week has been pretty busy and I know I anticipated having this done Wednesday night…so I hope this allows enough time for some of you who requested a tutorial, to make the cards you wanted in time!!!

I can say that this card isn’t too tricky to make. I did the whole thing in about an hour last night. While it looks fancy and complicated, the mechanism is simple. A waterfall pull tab card can be seen in my previous post, Valentine Pop Up Card: Hidden Message, and seen in video action in the post Happy Birthday Waterfall Card.

Ok so now the question – how to make this card?

1. Start out with a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock and cut in half so you have a 12 x 6″ piece. Score and fold in the middle so you have a folded 6 x 6″ square card. Cut an additional piece of cardstock (in a different color/pattern), into a 5 x 5″ square and place it in the inside of your card.

2. Now cut a 12″ x 2″ strip of paper (preferably the same type of cardstock as your 5 x 5″ square). This strip will be covered by another color and type of paper later on. This will serve as the mechanism for the tab.

3. Fold the strip in half (so you have a 6″ long strip when folded). Open the strip up and mark five 1 cm lines (note centimeter measurement), above the half way line. So you should have 6 inches at the bottom of the strip, then the fold in the middle of the strip. Then 5 lines each 1 cm apart. Score the lines and fold them in and out so that they are flexible.

Sorry this is so grainy! My iPhone camera wasn’t at its best last night! 🙂 Plus, it’s in pencil which was drawn rather lightly.

4. Now cut a piece of cardstock into 6″ x 2″ (this will be the strip that you pull down and will display a hidden message or image, whatever you want). Since it is 6 x 2″ it should line up perfectly with the bottom half of your tab.

5. Now cut a 5″ x 1″ strip of paper so it should be as wide as your 5 x 5″ square.

6. Use an x-acto knife (or teeny-tiny paper punch) to poke a hole through both ends of your newly cut 5″ x 1″ strip all the way through your 5 x 5″ square and your card (you will have the holes covered by your front & back cover on the outside of the card at the end of this). The holes do not have to be neat because you are going to insert little brads into them so they’ll be covered up.

7. Glue on the outer edges of your paper strip outside of the hole you just cut and then line up the holes of the strip to the holes in your card and press down firmly. Then insert the brads into the wholes.

Little star-shaped brads from Joann’s Fabrics

Again, this part below will be covered up by your outside cover of the card in the end.

8. Now take your long folded strip (the one where you made the five 1 cm score folds) and insert in under the strip you now secured with brad. Do not glue anything just yet. Line up the strips and trace with pencil where the edges meet. Cut off the excess.

Cut off the excess paper that would hang down below the orange strip.

9. Once your excess is cut off, apply a small amount of glue along the edge of the strip and then insert it down under the orange strip and secure it by pressing down firmly so it adheres well.

It might tough to see but there is glue on the tip of the yellow part that I am sliding down in this picture. It is going to go underneath the orange strip and be glued to it.

Press firmly and make sure it’s dried or at least well-secured.

10. Now you have the mechanism ready for your pop up messages.

11. Cut out 6 squares (2″ x 2″) and glue each one along a 1 cm fold so that one square is layered on top of another square with a 1 cm overlap.

So for each 1 cm section where you put glue, line up 1 of your 2″ x 2″ squares and glue it down. Keep this going until you have them all glued.

12. Now that you have all the squares glued down on each 1 cm fold, you can put a little glue along the last square on the bottom and this will slide under the orange strip and be secured to it as well (similar to what we did in step # 9.

13. You now have your pull tab mechanism ready for decoration!

14. I used a mini-paper punch to pop out some stars for decoration on the outer top flap.

15. Now cut out 5 squares, each 1.5″ x 1.5″ and these will be the squares with the letters H-A-P-P-Y on them. (You can use whatever letters you want to spell out a name or a different word. Or you can use pictures or shapes, it’s really whatever you want to do with it). When you pull the orange tab down all the way, you can write the message you want for it. In this case, I wrote “Birthday” and I always like to do it in pencil first before I break out the sharpie.

16. Now you can add whatever little cute things you want to the rest of the card. I free-hand drew some balloons and cut them out (all 3 at once because I am lazy). I didn’t have time to add other decorations to this last night but you can use paper stars, add some text, or do whatever you want to make it your own.

17. Now you can cut out poster project board (the sturdy stuff that I love!) and cut out two 6 x 6″ squares (so they should line up perfectly with the rest of your card) and then cover up that project board with the cardstock of your choice for the outside of the card.

Cover up those brads!

And the piece below will be the outer cover for the card, to be glued to the card and decorated.

I will admit, I didn’t finish the outer part of the card. But, in my defense, I had to choose between either going to bed with wet hair from showering earlier, or quitting my cardmaking for the evening and blow drying it. Since it was 20 degrees last night in Rhode Island, I chose to blow dry!!!

But, I’m sure most of you are incredibly crafty and good at putting together your own cute looking cover. 🙂 Plus you probably were more interested in the pull tab waterfall mechanism, so I felt that skipping this part wasn’t as crucial. Let me know if there are any more requests! I will do my best to get them done on time. This has just been a busy season of card making since it’s Valentine’s Day soon and it seems like everyone I know is having a birthday around here.